EX-ENGLAND footballer Paul Gascoigne has been admitted to a treatment centre in the US after celebrity friends intervened to help the star.

TalkSPORT presenter and former England cricketer Ronnie Irani has spoken of how he and Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans, a long-term friend of Gascoigne, organised the Italia 90 and Euro 96 star's flight to the centre in Phoenix, Arizona.

The move followed a charity appearance in Northampton last week, during which the alcoholic former Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio and Newcastle United player, 45, appeared unwell and shaking, before breaking down and sobbing on stage in front of a room full of fans.

WINE worth almost £50,000 was bought to replenish the Government's cellars in 2011/12.

But under new arrangements designed to make the Government hospitality wine cellar self-funding, bottles worth £44,000 were sold off.

Junior Foreign Office minister Mark Simmonds told the Commons that purchases for the Government hospitality wine cellar, which is used to supply drink for state banquets and official functions, amounted to £48,955.

Mr Simmonds told MPs that French wine was consumed in the largest quantities, with English varieties in second place.

RESTAURANT chain TGI Friday's is to create 600 jobs this year with the opening of six new outlets across the country.

The American-owned company said new restaurants will open in Leeds next month and Glasgow in August, with details of the other four to be announced later. Jobs will include waitresses, bar staff, chefs and managers.

TGI Friday's, which has 55 restaurants in the UK, opened its first in the UK in 1986, in Birmingham.